Texas improved its position on Forbes' Best States for Business this year. The Lone Star State ranked 8th on this year's list, up from 9th in 2008.
The magazine ranks all 50 states based on costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.
Business costs, which include labor, energy and taxes are weighted the most heavily, says the Austin Business Journal:
Texas ranks No. 1 in the land for overall economic climate and third for growth potential.
However, the state ranked fairly low (39th) for quality of life and was 29th when it comes to cost of doing business.
Other findings:
Virginia garnered the top spot for the best business climate in the country for the fourth straight year.
Virginia is the only state ranked in the top 20 in each of the six categories, and its $325 billion economy is expected to be the 10th largest in the United States in 2009.
Rhode Island ranked last on the list with the worst regulatory environment and high costs of business.
Source: Editorial, "Texas moves up in Forbes' best states for business list," Austin Business Journal, September 25, 2009; based upon: Kurt Badenhausen, "Table: The Best States For Business," Forbes.com, September 23, 2009.
For text:
http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/2009/09/21/daily34.html
For Forbes report:
http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/23/best-states-for-business-beltway-best-states_table.html
For more on State and Local Issues:
The more we inspect Max Baucus's health-care bill, the worse it looks. Today's howler: One reason it allegedly "pays for itself" over 10 years is because it would break all 50 state budgets by permanently expanding Medicaid, the joint state-federal program for the poor.
Democrats want to use Medicaid to cover everyone up to at least 133% of the federal poverty level, or about $30,000 for a family of four. Starting in 2014, Mr. Baucus plans to spend $287 billion through 2019—or about one-third of ObamaCare's total spending—to add some 11 million new people to the Medicaid rolls.
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Source: Editorial, "Max's Mad Mandate; The Baucus health bill will break 50 state budgets via Medicaid," Wall Street Journal, September 28, 2009.
This election season is shaping up to provide conservatives with great opportunities for significant gains up and down the ballot.
For several years our movement has been hampered by elected officials who campaign as conservatives, but legislate like liberals. Their duplicity has robbed us of substantive victories advancing the cause of liberty.
Whether it's Democrats like Mark Homer, Joe Heflin and Stephen Frost, or Republicans like Brian McCall, Vicki Truitt and Delwin Jones, there are simply too many members of the legislature who consistently vote in contradiction to the principles they proclaim on campaign trail. There are too many legislators who are simply too willing to play fast and loose with your money.
But that's changing. Across the state, I’m finding men and women of strong convictions considering runs for the Texas House and Senate. As I have been meeting with them, their excitement and enthusiasm is contagious. The task ahead is to identify the pretenders from the patriots.
For the right candidates to succeed, you and I must step alongside them. We must support those “good guys” with our time and money. We must back those publicly who are willing to challenge the regulate-tax-and-spend status quo.
To do all this, we need your help.
First, make a contribution to the Empower Texans PAC today. Support the PAC with a $7 monthly contribution. (That’s less than the cost of two cups of coffee a month!) No contribution is used for salaries, administration or overhead; every dollar goes to direct political action. Action supporting conservatives, and defeating the liberals, regardless of "party," is what is needed this election cycle.
Second, when you contribute be sure to register to serve on our regional advisory committees. We'll keep you apprised of the candidates we're talking at, provide assessments of the area campaigns, and rely on your feedback in making endorsements.
Just as our founding fathers 233 years ago pledged their lives, fortunes and sacred honor to the cause of independence, we must do likewise in the ongoing work of securing the blessings of liberty. In pooling together our resources of time, money and talent, we can ensure a strong, vibrant Texas for decades to come.
In Liberty,
Michael Quinn Sullivan
& the EmpowerTexans.com Team!
Texas again leads the nation in the percentage of residents without health insurance, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures released last week. More than one of every four Texans -- 25.1 percent -- were uninsured, based on a two-year average for 2007-08. That's up from 24.1 percent for 2005 and 2006, although analysts agreed the recession hit Texas late, holding down what could have been a bigger increase, says the Dallas Morning News.
John Goodman, President, CEO and the Kellye Wright Fellow of the National Center for Policy Analysis, said the percentage of the U.S. population lacking insurance has been stuck at about 15 percent over the past decade. Enrollment in Medicaid and various states' Children's Health Insurance Programs has grown but has barely put a dent in the rate, he said.
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No matter what you think of the gubernatorial race, or the candidates involved, should Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison resign a special election will be needed to fill the unexpired term.
We put that question to Texas’ Secretary of State Hope Andrade, whose office is charged with overseeing elections. Her answer? It would be “between $18 million to $20 million.” Andrade further estimated that a special election run-off would cost an additional $10 million.
That’s substantial. And it is a cost that will paid by local taxpayers, as the funding of elections rests primarily with the state’s 254 counties.
According to Andrade, the cost estimate is based, among other things, on the presumption that most of the state’s 8,400 polling places would not be consolidated because of federal rules. She adds in the letter that the “high profile vacancy” increasing voter turnout, and the likelihood the election would not be able to fall on a unified election date add to the cost assumptions.
Obviously it’s Sen. Hutchison’s prerogative to seek the governorship, but there is a very real cost that comes with replacing her before the end of her current term. For the sake of Texas’ taxpayers, she should do everything possible to minimize the cost by timing a resignation around the calendar of the state’s upcoming constitutional amendment election. That is, if she is going to resign in advance of the March 2010 primary.
I hope the $30 million price tag to replace her factors both into the senator’s decision-making, and that of Gov. Perry should he be in a position to set a special election date based on a resignation.
From what Secretary Andrade has communicated (find her letter here), it would appear those costs could be mitigated if Sen. Hutchison resigned her seat in the next several weeks. That would allow the special election to conceivably be held on Nov. 3, when voters are already going to the polls statewide to decide on constitutional amendments.
So what do you think? How much should the cost of the election factor into Hutchison’s decision of if, and when, to resign?
By the way, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst this week announced his intention to seek a third term in office. It's way too early to engage in such endorsements. After all, he might just want to be a senator…
But speaking of senators... State Sen. Steve Ogden of Bryan officially announced yesterday he isn't seeking another term. He is an honorable man whose service to Texas is greatly appreciated. Exploring a run for the seat is State Rep. Dan Gattis of Georgetown, who earned the "Taxpayer Advocate Award" this Session.
We have some exciting days ahead running up to the 2010 election season.
A Personal Note...
Eight years ago today, living just two miles from the Pentagon, my family and I were waiting for movers to bring us home to Texas. And then the world rocked with a loud explosion.
Let us remember those who died that day; and let us pray for the men and women who serve in our nation's armed forces. Specifically for my Aggie buddy Gary, who even now is fighting in Afghanistan. He and the men under his command give of their freedom, comfort, and even lives, so that we might live to pursue liberty.
Our flag does, indeed, still wave strongly.
Respectfully,
Michael Quinn Sullivan
& the EmpowerTexans.com Team!
Oil is the single most important source of energy in the world, providing 40 percent of the world's total. However, even as demand increases in developing countries, oil's position in the global economy is being questioned and challenged as never before, says Daniel Yergin, chairman of IHS Cambridge Energy Research Association.
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By Charles Krauthammer
Friday, August 14, 2009
In the 48 hours of June 15-16, President Obama lost the health-care debate. First, a letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Sen. Edward Kennedy reported that his health committee's reform bill would add $1 trillion in debt over the next decade. Then the CBO reported that the other Senate bill, being written by the Finance Committee, would add $1.6 trillion. The central contradiction of Obamacare was fatally exposed: From his first address to Congress, Obama insisted on the dire need for restructuring the health-care system because out-of-control costs were bankrupting the Treasury and wrecking the U.S. economy -- yet the Democrats' plans would make the problem worse.
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It used to be the government's budget picture was measured in billions of dollars. No longer. Trillions, that's the yardstick of the 21st century, says the Associated Press (AP).
In 1981, the trillion dollar figure was such a novelty that President Ronald Reagan declared it incomprehensible. "If you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only 4 inches high, you'd be a millionaire," the president said then. "A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high."
Now consider the mileage in this:
* The government faces nearly a $1.6 trillion deficit in the fiscal year that ends Sept. 30, according to government budget officials.
* It faces a cumulative 10-year deficit of about $9 trillion; that's $30,000 for each man, woman and child in the United States.
* It's publicly held debt is projected by the White House budget office to total a whopping $17.5 trillion by 2019 -- a figure so big it is three-quarters of the nation's entire economy -- and big enough that it would send Reagan's stack of thousand-dollar bills into satellite orbit.
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If Thomas Jefferson was right, that taxpayer-funded lobbying is sinful and tyrannical, then many of Texas' cities and counties might want to check the status of their fiscal souls.
The City of Denton, for example, is paying a lobby firm $80,000 a year to keep fighting against their taxpayers' interests. Denton is one of several local government entities paying the lobby firm HillCo to fight for laws allowing higher taxes and fees while seeking to avoid both fiscal accountability and transparency.
What do you think of taxpayer-funded lobbying?
It was the unholy alliance of Dallas-area taxing entities and large firms seeking lucrative payouts that pushed (unsuccessfully) for higher gasoline taxes and fees during the session. They refused to consider requirements for complete transparency in the spending, requiring metrics for traffic relief, and -- not surprisingly -- a ban on using those new dollars for lobbying.
The city's mayor pro tem, Pete Kamp, is taking direct aim at Senate taxpayer champion Jane Nelson for her principled opposition to the effort. Kamp crypitcally wants "public education" to turn the tide against Sen. Nelson. And push those taxes and fees next time.
That'd only be through mis-education and misdirection. As State Sen. Jane Nelson notes, the public is very well educated on the problems associated with "a new menu of taxes and fees."
Texans for Fiscal Responsibility delivered thousands of petitions and letters from taxpayers to legislators' offices opposing the tax hike.
Let's be clear: transportation is woefully misfunded, but the immediate solution isn't to raise taxes.
For example, rather than use tax dollars to fund lobbyists, city and state officials should work to end the billions of dollars in gas tax diversions. Gas tax dollars are supposed to fund roads, but nearly 45 percent is spent elsewhere.
When we know entities like the Dallas Area Rapid Transit -- a big beneficiary of the tax-grab effort -- have lost or mis-accounted billions of dollars in recent years. Fundamental operating reform and real-time fiscal transparency should be pursued and implemented long before taxes are raised.
Giving the big-spenders more dollars now would simply be a license for waste. And letting local government employee tax dollars to fund lobbyists merely adds insult to injury.
For Texas,
Michael Quinn Sullivan
& the EmpowerTexans.com Team!
The City of Dallas wants your feedback on the City Manager’s Proposed Fiscal Year 2009 – 2010 Budget.
They ask that you plan to attend one or more of the meetings to share your input. Meetings will be held in each Council district. Meetings will be held between August 10 - 20, between August 24 - 27, and between August 31 - September 8 (click on links for a PDF of specific dates, times, and locations). The City Manager will present the proposed FY 2009/10 Budget on August 10 at 9 am at Dallas City Hall in room 6 E South.
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Brian S. Wesbury and Robert Stein
The economy is improving, but not thanks to the stimulus.
Last Friday morning, just hours before the July employment report, Canada's Globe and Mail published an op-ed by Nobel Prize winner and former World Bank chief economist Joseph Stiglitz. Stimulus spending has been "slow going," he wrote, "…what is needed now is another dose of fiscal stimulus."
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The Laffer Curve shows the relationship between tax rates and tax revenues, with the insight that taxable income is not predetermined. The Laffer Curve is best known for demonstrating that, at a certain point, higher tax rates fail to produce more revenue, but the key insight is the much more modest point that changes in tax rates cause changes in taxable income, which leads to some level of revenue feedback.
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Submitted by MQSullivan
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison took a direct aim at the state's business tax today in Dallas as part of her gubernatorial campaign announcement tour. That's welcome news to those of us who fought against it from the beginning. She described it as "a tragic mistake."
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So it looks as if the public option has been sent to the death panel—so to speak. Over the weekend President Obama and other White House officials throttled back their demands for a new health-care entitlement program that looked like Medicare for the middle class. Liberals are in a furor and more than a few conservatives are popping champagne corks. But dumping one of the most radical and destructive features of ObamaCare is best viewed as a tactical political retreat, not a surrender.
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U.S. Congressmen Barton, Johnson and Sessions to host
Congressional field hearing on healthcare solutions
August 31st at 7 p.m. at the Eisemann Center in Richardson
On Monday, August 31st at 7:00 p.m., U.S. Congressmen Joe Barton (6th Dist.-Texas), Sam Johnson (3rd Dist.-Texas), and Pete Sessions (32nd Dist.-Texas) will host a congressional field hearing on healthcare solutions at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. The free event will be open to the public and the media.
There will be parking but people are encouraged to take DART.
The Eisemann Center’s location, just south of the intersection of Central Expressway (US 75) and the President George Bush Turnpike (Hwy. 190), is easily accessible by car. Just a few hundred feet from the Eisemann Center’s front doors is the DART Rail’s Galatyn Park Station on the Red Line.
Updated information on confirmed panelists will follow at a later date.
Monday, August 31st
7:00 p.m.
Congressional field hearing on healthcare solutions
U.S. Congressman Joe Barton (6th Dist.-Texas)
U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson (3rd Dist.-Texas)
U.S. Congressman Pete Sessions (32nd Dist.-Texas)
Charles W. Eisemann Center for Performing Arts and Corporate Presentations
Hill Performance Hall
2351 Performance Drive
Richardson
*The event is free and open to the public. There will be parking but people are encouraged to take DART.